Track team shatters records at MPSF Championships

SEATTLE — The BYU track and field team recorded a total of 42 season-best performances at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Seattle this Friday and Saturday. 

“Having 54 athletes here means there are at least 54 opportunities for season bests,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “We came in with a goal of trying to get at least 36 season bests and we surpassed that with 42. You really want to deliver your best ones at the last big indoor meet of the year. The other main goal we had was to make sure that we did the work we needed to in order to prepare our national qualifiers. All in all, we accomplished a lot of really good goals and now we are looking forward to the NCAA Championships in two weeks.”

Shea Collinsworth recorded a BYU school record in the women’s one mile with a time of 4:35.76, three seconds faster than the previous school record. She currently holds the school record now for three events—the 400-meter run, 800-meter run and the mile.

“One of the big races of the day was the women’s mile where Shea got second place and showed that she is not just an 800-meter runner," Eyestone said. "She looked very strong, she set another school record by a couple of seconds and ran the best women’s mile in the history of BYU. That was huge and very exciting for her."

Other women who ran strong races in the 800m included junior Madelyn Brooks (ninth place), junior Kristi Rush (10th place) and freshman Whittni Orton (11th place).

In the men’s 800-meter run, Connor Ross stepped up after being sick for a week leading up to the meet. Ross placed second overall with a time of 1:49.67.

Women’s distance runner Laura Young placed sixth in the 5,000-meter run with a new personal-best time of 16:15.66. Alice Jensen also reached a new personal-best time in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:45.35, placing 12th overall.

Rory Linkletter, Nicolas Montanez and Daniel Carney all placed within the top-15 of the men’s 5,000-meter run. Linkletter ran a time of 13:59.59 to take second place, Montanez had a personal-best time of 14:09.08 to take eighth place and Carney had a season-best time of 14:13.94 to place 13th.

Linkletter’s time will qualify him to participate in the NCAA Championships along with sophomore Clayton Young. Young’s time in the 3,000-meter run will also send him to the NCAA Championships. 

Senior Chloe Hadley put on strong performances in the women’s long jump and triple jump. Hadley set an indoor personal record for herself in the long jump with a mark of 18’ 2.50” (5.55m) coming in at 10th overall. Her seventh-place performance in the triple jump puts her at No. 8 for BYU’s all-time records with a mark of 39’ 10.50” (12.15m).

Eyestone said Zachary Blackham improved on his mark in the high jump and rose up big time in his performance. Blackham’s mark of 7’ 3” (2.21m) read third place overall and marked a season best. This mark will send Blackham to the NCAA Championships.

The women’s pentathlon and the men’s heptathlon were also among some of the big performances with Halley Folsom reaching a personal best of 3,571 points and placing eighth overall. Kevin Nielsen took second place in the heptathlon with a new school record of 5,728 points and Jackson Walker finished sixth place with 5,361 points.

Eyestone said Nielsen’s performance put him in a good position to punch his ticket for the national meet.

“He really had to dig down and he got a new personal best," Eyestone said. "He had a great, great day. The heptathlon has so many events and the fact that he PR’d in many of those events was really big for him. He really reached down and had a great second day."

Additional athletes who hit personal bests this weekend include freshman Clark Brown (200-meter dash), sophomore Keesha Miller (200-meter dash), junior Drew Tingey (400-meter run), freshman Anna Camp (800-meter run) and freshman Courtney Wayment (3,000-meter run).

Women’s high jumper Andrea Stapleton and men’s 800-meter runner Abraham Alvarado are among the other athletes in good positions to head to the NCAA Championships.

The NCAA Championships in two weeks marks the final meet of the indoor season. The meet will take place Friday, March 10, to Saturday, March 11, in College Station, Texas. 

For a full list of results from the MPSF Championships, click here.